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Chinese pressure sees Miss Tibet ousted from Malaysian
beauty pageant

AFP
10 July 2005

Published in:
Yahoo

DHARAMSHALA, India, Sunday, July 10, 2005 (AFP) - Miss
Tibet has been barred from participating in a beauty
pageant in Malaysia after Chinese officials complained
that a woman who lives in India cannot represent a
part of China.

"Miss Tibet Tashi Yangchen made all the preparations
but now she is not participating at this year's Miss
Tourism Pageant in Malaysia because the organiser of
the Miss Tourism Pageant 2005 required Miss Tibet to
participate as Miss Tibet-China," Ngawang Samdup,
spokesman for Tashi, said Sunday.

The pageant with contestants from 32 countries began
on Saturday in Sarawak, Malaysia, with the final
taking place on July 23.

Ngawang said the organiser of the pageant, Alaric Soh,
told Tibetan officials that the Chinese embassy in
Malaysia had objected to the participation of a Miss
Tibet.

Soh tried to solve the dispute by naming Tashi as the
Miss Tibet-China contestant but Tibetan organisers
said that was unacceptable.

"To stand as Miss Tibet-China would be politically
incorrect as the Chinese have not yet solved the
political issue of Tibet," Ngawang said. "It is
unfortunate that China is meddling in the event with
political motives."

Tashi, who is currently studying for a masters in
business administration at Huron University in London,
was also ousted from the Miss Tourism World pageant in
Zimbabwe in February following pressure from the
Chinese embassy there.

Tashi was crowned Miss Tibet in October 2004 in
Dharamsala, the home of the Tibetan
government-in-exile and main residence of the Dalai
Lama.

The Dalai Lama, who turned 70 last Wednesday, fled to
India in 1959, nine years after China occupied Tibet.

Envoys of the Dalai Lama and the Chinese officials
have conducted four rounds of exploratory talks on
rapproachment since 2002 with the latest rounds in
Berne, Switzerland, earlier this month.